1. O people, be steadfast when misfortune strikes
And be forgiving after an error has been made

2. And let a man get used to patience after
The passions of youth have passed their prime

3. O house of Salma in the stony plain and twisted valleys
Near the thundering gorge and jagged ridges

4. I took shade by your walls, a guest of the barren desert
To fulfill the need of the suffering soul

5. You dwelled here in summer, then remembered
Your fate amid the wastes, lost and confused

6. Twisting the reins, frightened, and drawing in
Toward handlers in a narrow rugged land

7. Raising their noses in the reins as if
Led to their goal, the hides of maimed beasts

8. When the grunts cease from their hands and necks
The head of the next grunting train appears

9. And turns away from the watering place though its belly rumbles
With a hollow sound like a bursting wineskin

10. Rising above a plain of sweat as if ascending
A lofty peak by steps cut into the slope

11. To overcome the peak when their spears were aroused
Stirring deadly strife between them

12. Though once they were the builders before their discord
He who does not shore up his building will collapse

13. Their situation is like the rotten planks of a ship
Wrecked on a reef when the seams split

14. When they descend on an oft-raided land
Its battlements are bowed down and taken

15. I disdained the minds of Qais and Murthid
When they came to water and Rabi’s wells

16. One day in Hashshâr when a man claims his right
He is shoved and stripped and his clothes torn

17. In all the markets of Iraq there are kickbacks
On every deal the amirs take a few dirhams

18. The Iraqi summer is hot with ‘afâ and duhad
And grazing cattle when glutted with sap

19. O kings, are you not ashamed to fear violating
Our sanctities? Blood cannot wash away blood

20. We give the kings peace though they intended us harm
It is not permitted for us to kill them

21. Death will come to us from civilized people
If we are slighted or they are saddened by sin

22. Bahira claimed our spears are the spears of Christians
That never plunge into blood

23. But the spears of our army on the day of dogs
Removed Shurahbil when he swore oaths

24. Abu Hanash tore it out from the back
Of wretched Shiqâ’ with thrust and twist

25. He took him with the spear, then pulled him close
And he fell dead, mouth and hands filled

26. Their dogs used to snarl at our army, frightened
By the sight of a horde with thick neck armor

27. People see in us black tanned hides
And rough shaggy heads of lions, growling

28. As for ‘Amr ibn Hammam we cracked his skull
With an ugly tree that erased the wrongdoer